Victory in Florida's GOP primary may hinge on young evangelicals

FLORIDA'S GOP PRIMARY

Lauren McLaughlin and Jeremiah Shaw spent Friday morning supporting efforts to sign up new voters through a Christian program called "Redeem the Vote."

They're members of Northland, A Church Distributed, and committed evangelical Christians. But like many other Central Florida evangelicals, they haven't figured out how they'll vote in Tuesday's presidential primary.

McLaughlin, 19, a student at the University of Central Florida, said Friday that she was "still researching. The compassion issues and global policy are most important to me."

Shaw, 20, a Rollins College student, said, "one of the qualities I am looking for in a candidate is leadership -- a person who can unite the country and inspire people in their community and around the world."

They're evidence of a new set of concerns among Christian voters. Long seen as ultraconservatives whose main focus was hot-button social issues such as abortion and gay marriage, some evangelicals now are looking more broadly at issues ranging from poverty to the environment to America's place on the world stage.

"There's such a breadth of evangelical voters, because there's no monolithic bloc," said the Rev. Joel Hunter, Northland's pastor, who cast an early ballot for former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee.

'Free-for-all scramble'

"Each candidate speaks to a different interest of the evangelical perspective, and each is getting a share of the pocketbook and family-values vote," said Hunter, author of A New Kind of Conservative.

And this has turned the Republican campaign into a free-for-all scramble for the votes of white evangelicals -- a pivotal bloc of 25 percent to 35 percent of Floridians likely to vote in the GOP primary.

But 28 percent favored former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, who once made much of his anti-abortion, anti-gay-marriage credentials but is now touting himself as a businessman who can fix a "broken" Washington establishment.

And 23 percent chose Arizona Sen. John McCain, a maverick conservative and supporter of the Iraq war who in 2000 blasted some evangelical leaders as "agents of intolerance."

Only New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who is twice-divorced and a moderate on social issues, including abortion rights, seemed out of consideration, with 9 percent.

Religion has played a distinct if low-key role in the Florida campaign so far, with all the candidates (except Romney, who is Mormon) visiting large Protestant and Roman Catholic churches and appearing on religious radio and television. Huckabee will appear -- but not speak -- at First Baptist Church of Orlando on Sunday.

Huckabee, along with Romney, has also made the greatest effort to recruit evangelical backing.

Among Huckabee's key backers are the Rev. David Uth of First Baptist Church of Orlando; Christian publisher Steve Strang of Lake Mary; and John Stemberger, who is leading the effort to put a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage on the November ballot. Other religious conservatives, such as David Caton, executive director of the Florida Family Association, and Dennis Baxley, executive director for the Christian Coalition of Florida, are supporting Romney.

McCain resonates with youths

But it's McCain -- castigated by many in his party for supporting an immigration policy that would allow some illegal migrants to remain here -- who may be resonating with younger evangelicals.

"Younger evangelical voters support McCain because of his support for the environment and what may seem to them to be a compassionate position on immigration reform," Hunter said.

Dr. Randy Brinson, an Alabama physician who is chairman of "Redeem the Vote," agreed.

"There's such a split between younger evangelicals and what were the traditional old guard, who lean toward economic issues and issues like abortion, gay rights and limited government," he said. "It's not that young evangelicals don't embrace those issues, but they look at them in a broader context."

There are other divisions as well.

Some evangelicals who describe themselves as pragmatists think the cash-strapped Huckabee campaign has little chance of coming in first in the state's winner-take-all contest. So, if they are uncomfortable with Romney's Mormonism, they might vote for McCain. If they don't like Giuliani's position on social issues such as abortion, they might turn to Romney.

Some Catholic voters feel the same way.

"There is much more to it than just abortion," said Bob O'Malley, a public-relations executive from Altamonte Springs, who voted early for McCain. "There are social-justice issues -- immigration, health care and child welfare -- that Catholic voters need to consider."

Still, Huckabee remains the sentimental favorite among many evangelicals. A Southern Baptist minister, he is both overtly religious and socially conscious. His support seems strongest among less affluent evangelicals, as well as those most concerned with the poor.

"That's the appeal for us as new kinds of conservatives," Hunter said. "The compassion aspect is important to us, as well as his populism."

Bob Dempsey, who operates a pool-maintenance service, feels the same way.

"Huckabee's for the average American," said Dempsey, 61, of Casselberry. I'm sick and tired of our tax system in this country. I really want to get rid of the IRS."

Inspiring young voters

Pastor Bill Devlin, national president of Redeem the Vote, explains the Christian program at OrlandoSentinel.com/evangelicals